MORGAN: Public trust in governments is shattered

A degree of skepticism and mistrust of governments is a good thing. No elected officials or bureaucrats should get a pass or be gifted with blind trust. Government actions often don’t have the wellbeing of citizens at heart and the state should always be viewed with a skeptical eye. All that said, a degree of trust in governments is essential for a democracy to function. People must have a little faith and be willing to cooperate with the government at times. When the balance has been thrown off and healthy skepticism of the government has morphed into cynicism, things can go bad quickly. During the COVID-19 years, governments at all levels shattered the relationship of trust with citizens. Elected officials and appointed bureaucrats eagerly imposed controls upon people with no regard for personal freedoms. The ability to earn a living, travel, meet with loved ones, or pursue an education was curtailed. Even the sanctity of medical choice was violated as people were coerced into vaccinations they weren’t comfortable with. The state fed mistrust among citizens and encouraged them to report each other for pandemic violations. Families were shattered and livelihoods were destroyed. With hindsight, we can see how overblown the risk of COVID-19 was. Even when the pandemic was first unfolding, it was evident that the virus was harmless to healthy, young people yet the state couldn’t resist imposing controls upon us all with a disturbing zeal. Schools and playgrounds were closed and police assaulted kids playing hockey outdoors. The state fed citizens misinformation, and the social fabric of nations was torn as people were publicly shamed for questioning the motivation and actions of their governments. Now, we are seeing the cost of this shattered trust. In Calgary, the water supply has been disrupted for months due to decades of incompetent civil governments neglecting to inspect and maintain the main water lines. Restrictions on water use have dragged on and people are being shamed for daring to shower for more than three minutes, for flushing their toilets too many times, or for washing their cars. Fines of up to $3,000 are being levied against people caught committing the high crime of watering their gardens and threats abound of further legal consequences should citizens be found using water beyond their rationed and allotted amount.Despite all this pressure, citizens aren’t reducing their water use significantly. While city officials beg, cajole, and threaten citizens, their pleas are being ignored. To repair the water lines, people need to reduce water use en-masse and it isn’t happening. Apparently, if the overuse of water continues, Calgarians may experience a total shutdown of water or have boil water orders imposed on them for the whole winter. With such potentially dire consequences for using too much water, why are people still refusing to cut back? It’s because they don’t trust the city government. They remember the satisfied gleam in Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s eye as she maintained pandemic restrictions and the contempt in her voice when she spoke to citizens. They either don’t believe the threats to the water supply are real or they are continuing with high water use as an act of passive rebellion just to spite her. It’s probably a combination of both. If people trusted the city government, water use would drop. It’s annoying but not difficult to reduce daily consumption. Trust has been compromised however and now, in a time of genuine crisis, the government can’t get citizens to cooperate on solving the problem. This isn’t the fault of citizens. It is a consequence of the abuse of power by authorities. The issue gets even more worrisome when it comes to vaccine use. Safe, well-established, and tested vaccines have been in use for generations. People didn’t need a gun to their heads to take their children in for vaccinations. They trusted the medical establishment and the government. The lives saved through vaccination and savings in health costs are immeasurable. Now though, we are seeing a resurgence of diseases we thought were defeated. Measles is making a comeback as is whooping cough. Statistics are indicating that vaccine uptake has dropped dramatically in the last few years and children will be paying the price for it. There have always been some people making crazed claims about MMR vaccines and such. They were in a minority though and enough people participated in vaccinations to keep general immunities high enough to ensure we didn’t see new outbreaks of mumps, smallpox, or polio. The vaccines are safe and effective. Due to the way COVID-19 vaccines have been imposed on people though, mistrust of all vaccines has been growing. People are lumping well-established, effective vaccines in with the hastily concocted COVID jabs. Elections are approaching and people must vote for change. The old guard has to be flushed from power and replaced with reformers. New faces won’t solve every problem but we can be assured the old faces won’t solve any problem. Citizens are in an abusive relationship with governments and trust has been obliterated. Only through new players can trust start to be rebuilt and balance between citizens and governments be regained.